Please note that your intrepid blogger is directly, professionally helping the campaign of Travis Allen. (In case that was not obvious or you missed previous disclosure) Also, as you can see Corrin Rankin is an advertiser on this blog. I’ve also been making calls on behalf of Greg Gandrud and Randy Berholtz.

Yesterday, I wrote a second post about the 2011 CAGOP Platform Drill. It is my number one issue with Jessica Patterson, Luis Buhler, David Reade, Jeff Randle and the host of others. The platform is foundational to party identity. If you have no identity, you have no party. What Jessica Patterson did by getting paid to shred the platform was wrong and that reason alone would have caused me to pick a different candidate.

I also wrote about the $3Million Rampage of Luis Buhler and David Reade hunting down Conservatives off of Central Committees statewide. This is my second biggest issue with Mrs. Patterson as she is a paid operative of that same cabal. I fear that with Mrs. Patterson as chairman, the hunting of conservatives with big money will continue.

This is a change election for the CAGOP. The result will determine the fate of the CAGOP for a generation.

We’ve successfully defined the Jessica Patterson vs Travis Allen for CAGOP Chair race as insider vs grassroots. This is why recently, Patterson’s team of professional consultants are trying to re-define California Trailfailures as a grassroots organization – even while the logos of corporate donors are still displayed on their website. They have also sought to define her as a conservative, another sure-fire sign of problems. If you have to tell someone you are a conservative, you have an image problem.

Steve Frank, 71 is an old warrior for the conservative cause. He has added to the debate for sure. He has some extremely loyal supporters and that means something. He also publicly pledged along with Travis Allen to support Allen and the second ballot and Travis Allen has done likewise. This unity of purpose among conservatives is refreshing and rare.

If Jessica wins, what do Frank’s and Allen’s supporters do? Do they leave, do they stay and disrupt? Or do they cohesively participate? Will Reade, Randle and Luis Buhler retaliate and create blacklists as they have done for the last 20 years? What kind of committees will she appoint as the Chairman appoints Vol Orgs, Resolutions, Rules and others?

If Travis Allen wins, what will Jessica Patterson and team do? Will they withdraw completely to make Travis Allen’s job difficult to the extreme? Do they try to undermine him behind the scenes if they stick around? What about all the staffers appointed as delegates? What do they do? Will they run media drills against Travis Allen similar to what they have done against other political adversaries?

Repeat the same battery of questions should Steve Frank win.

The Stakes for the “Down-Ticket” races are less severe. It is the opinion of this blogger, backed up with evidence that the optics around Peter Kuo are disastrous for the CAGOP. While the level of passion in the Vice Chair Race is nowhere near the Chairman’s race – what will Kuo and his team do should he lose to Corrin Rankin?

Worse, even if you agree that Kuo’s many foreign businesses are legitimate, research of his facebook account shows he is gone 4-6 months out of the year on business. What happens then?

I have no doubt whatsoever that Rankin will accept the result and continue on regardless. I also know that she will be one of the most effective Vice Chairs the party has had in a generation should she win. She will be a full-time Vice Chair and available to all.

Treasurer? Kathy T has a lot of friends and a lot of history. As I type this blog, it looks like Greg Gandrud and Kathy T are evenly matched. Gandrud has support across the spectrum. Kathy has a lot of institutional support and the rumors that she was recruited by the establishment are still sticking. Despite said entanglements, Kathy T may be the most conservative candidate not named Randy Berholtz that is running.

Greg Gandrud is one of the most qualified CRP officer candidates we have to choose from in this election. Gandrud’s endorsement list is an impressive cross-section of the party from the far-right to the far-left. He has assembled this list of support despite implied resistance from the establishment.

In the Randy Berholtz vs Dan Trimble for CAGOP Secretary Race, the choice is simple. Dan Trimble is an out of the closet Trump-basher, recently complaining incessantly about the government shutdown. He is also one of those that cares more about Trump’s twitter account than policy. Unless he has scrubbed his social media like Mrs. Patterson did, it is all still there.

Trimble is also dedicated to lerching the CAGOP Platform leftward, he has long advocated to “Yank the Plank” as in removing the pro-life plank from the CAGOP platform (amongst others).

Randy Berholtz is the opposite, a Trump Supporter and a full portfolio conservative. He also happens to have a list of qualifications a mile long. Some of the top party stalwarts are promoting Randy Berholtz.

There are two contested regional vice chair races and three that are not.

In the Central Coast, Vicki Nohrden is running against Career Staffer Lindsay Stetson. Our pick is Vicki Nohrden.

So this is my concluding message to CRP Delegates:

I know 100% that the information on this blog regarding the CRP elections is accurate to the best of my knowledge (and yes I have corrected a couple of posts – which is why I write under my own name). I also there will be consequences to me personally for writing them. I’ve long since made peace with that. But, here’s the thing – almost everyone in the CAGOP universe has read some or all of what I wrote. Now, they get to choose what to do with it. The candidates have all made their case. To the best of my knowledge all the rules have been followed and while some of the stuff going on looks bad, nothing I have seen is a violation of any applicable rules.

I will accept the results of the election and will be available to any and all of the above who win in order to help them and the CAGOP succeed. Will you join me? Will those that win and lose the above races join me?

One last note – I am calling on all delegates to be polite and professional this weekend. Please do not repeat the confrontational style of the Governor’s race convention. There will be a lot of news media present. Secondly, aggressive behavior will alienate the small number of truly undecided delegates that are going to be present.

This convention will be one of the most well-attended conventions in a long time. Let’s have our debate, keep it polite and then agree to move forward with the best interests of the CAGOP at heart.

Beyond their attempt to gut the CAGOP platform in 2011 – the pattern of contempt for conservatives in team Jessica is set. Jessica Patterson’s complicity in it is set. She was paid for pretty much every proxy drill since 2010 – which included stuffing two attempts to trash prop 14 by the rank and file delegates. It also included running very bad by law amendments and stuffing an attempt to censure Chad Mayes. However, the second largest issue I have (beyond trying to gut the Platform) with Team Jessica is the $3MM they directed hunting down conservatives.

In previous posts, we detailed how Jessica Patterson was involved in getting a bylaw passed that removed the delegations from 8 Central Committees. The rub was to force them on to the ballot. Tiny counties were disenfranchised because they had no elections, angering people like David Stafford Reade that sought control of their leadership. Solano County, the main intended target of the by-law change now has no representation on the State Party despite having over 100,000 registered Republicans. (Neither does Merced County with their 75,000)

Note Placer County D4 and D5 did not make the ballot – and D1-3 on this slate guide were paid for by Spirit of Democracy PAC (directed by Luis Buhler and David Stafford Reade)

You will see Butte, Nevada, Sacramento, San Bernardino, Kings, Stanislaus, Santa Cruz, Orange, Los Angeles, Tulare, Contra Costa and the list goes on. You will see familiar names of political consultants and legislative staff on the list of candidates Spirit of Democracy spent money on.

At the time, your intrepid blogger pieced together 44 Counties Luis Buhler directed expenditures of money to. Luis was attempting to exterminate conservatives off of County Central Committees and settle 30 year old scores. (This is the conclusion I drew based on the evidence I gathered)

Jessica Patterson, while doing the job she was paid to do, helped facilitate this. Jessica Patterson while doing the job she was paid to do helped facilitate primary challenges to known conservative incumbents – Tim Donnelly and Alan Mansoor. Jessica Patterson while doing the job she was paid to do twice defended Proposition 14 from opposition. Jessica Patterson while doing the job she was paid to do led efforts to shred the California Republican Party Platform.

What will Jessica Patterson do as CAGOP Chair?

For further proof about the mail operation – here are photos of the “We are the GOP” mailers that came to my house.

You will see Congressman LaMalfa promoting these Placer GOP Candidates – the connection is David Stafford Reade who was his Chief of Staff in his Senate Days. You can see clearly that Spirit of Democracy (funded by Charles T Munger Jr and controlled by Luis Buhler) is listed as the responsible party. Reade, Jessica Patterson and many others made a lot of money from that operation.

Yup – three pieces of mail went to Placer County.

There is no reasonable standard whereby Jessica Patterson can claim to be a unifying force or a Conservative. Period. Republicans judge people by their actions, not their intentions. In practice, whenever the oligarchy of controlled failure has needed their operations carried out, Mrs. Patterson has been in the middle of them.

Patterson did her part to get the CAGOP ByLaws changed so that Luis Buhler, David Reade and others could set up a web of control statewide with consultants and staff the favored picks over Conservatives. $3MM later, the deed was done. They are doing it again in 2019 – with something like 1/3 to 40% of appointed delegates as of the last update I saw being Paid Staff, Consultants or employees of donors.

In 2012 and 2014 – they tried to take out Conservative Legislators. In 1992, Jeff Randle, the CEO of Jessica Patterson’s employer California Trailblazers ran a similar effort against several Conservative legislators on behalf of Pete Wilson. In 2012, they went after the Placer GOP and the San Bernardino GOP with $100,000. In 2016, they went after 44 County Parties. What will they do in 2020 if they win control of everything? Of course, don’t forget millions upon millions spent against Conservatives in open seat races.

It is nearly impossible to draw any other conclusion that the Oligarchy of Controlled Failure that is promoting Jessica Patterson has a clear agenda against Conservatives. It is also a reasonable question to ask, should they succeed in their plan to elect Jessica Patterson will open season ensue (again)?

Note the tweets Mrs. Patterson liked (and retweeted while at the Oct 2017 CAGOP) again, since deleted from her account when it was scrubbed

These tweets provide concrete proof of her involvement in one of the two efforts to thwart anti Prop 14 Measures at the CAGOP. Secondly, you can see her also celebrating the failure of an attempt to blast CHAD MAYES for his role in the largest Tax Increase in State History (known as Cap and Trade).

It is the opinion of this blogger that Mrs. Patterson had professional assistance to sanitize her twitter account, as the references to Chad Mayes and Kristen Olsen were difficult to uncover. (As were the above references to her paid proxy harvesting operations to thwart the will of the majority of activist delegates to the CAGOP)

Now, again, ask yourself if this is the pattern you want from a potential Chairman of the CAGOP? John McCain, Meg Whitman and Mitt Romney?

Jessica Patterson has been a career staffer. I can’t find any proof that she has ever held a job outside of Politics. When I am not blogging or working on campaigns, I’ve been a licensed insurance agent since 1997. We have candidates for Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer who are outright successes in private business, but not Jessica Patterson.

Note the strange characters, one of the archive sites produced some foreign language results.

I have a problem with Staffers and paid political consultants being in positions of authority in Party or Volunteer Organizations. I personally have to recuse myself all the time from votes in the CIR. It is nearly impossible to be unbiased and balanced when your income comes from politics. It is a fact of life.

In the case of Jessica Patterson, she has been paid to run delegate proxy harvesting drills for years at a price of $5K-$15K a piece. It is reputed that David Stafford Reade, her campaign manager can make upwards of $30,000 a convention. Meridian Pacific who is her campaign consultant for her Chairman’s Race has handled millions of dollars worth of campaign expenditures for the CAGOP. There are far too many conflicts of interest here, and the world of people controlling this stuff is very small. (The Oligarchy of Controlled Failure)

By virtue of our research, your intrepid blogger has been able to generate concrete proof of the following:

Jessica Patterson is a career political staffer

She has a client list that is a pedigree of the far left of the GOP

She has routinely worked to thwart the will of the rank and file CAGOP Delegate, defending Prop 14 and Cap and Trade as proven on this blog

She ran a proxy harvesting Drill to pass a CAGOP By-Law provision targeting Central Committee using quriks in state law to avoid being exposed to thousands of mail pieces hitting their area. The Oligarchy of Controlled failure saw to it that 8 Central Committees were stripped of their deligation

She has worked to gut the CAGOP Platform as proven on this blog

Her closest advisers have a history of retaliation and heavy handed tactics

Her most recent employer, California Trailblazers has been an abject failure. It has paid over 90% of its’ raised money out as salaries and consulting fees.

She ran victory 2010 and 2012, two of the worst years for the CAGOP at the ballot box, eclipsed only by 2018’s disaster

She has defended (and worked for) both Chad Mayes and Kristen Olsen, both scandal ridden and authors of legislative disasters for the GOP

California Trailblazers, founded in 2011 to elect more Republicans to partisan office has participated in a net loss of 13 seats in the California Legislature.

Her political consultant, Meridian Pacific is also the single largest vendor to the CAGOP. This is a serious conflict of interest.

You have a clear choice for CAGOP Chair. Travis Allen is almost the exact opposite of what we have detailed in our expose’ on the CAGOP Chairman’s Race. Choose wisely.

In 2011, Right on Daily, working with a series of activists who had a site called www.knowyourproxy.info blew the lid off of a proxy drill that was unlike any other. David Stafford Reade, Andy Garakhani, Jessica Patterson and others were paid by Luis Buhler (and others) to harvest Proxies to support the “Platform for California’s Future”. It sounds a lot like “New Way California” just 8 years ago.

Remember and focus on this – the issue is not Jessica Patterson’s character, she is an employee of the Oligarchy of Controlled Failure. The issue is Jessica Patterson’s actions and her pedigree as a staffer for Luis Buhler, Kevin McCarthy, “Leadership”, Jeff Randle and others that have long sought to eliminate Conservatives and Grassroots activists from influence. Further, these people have also sought to shrink the number of people with influence and have sought centralization of influence within the CAGOP in order to ensure their continued income from the process. It could be anybody doing this kind of stuff – in this case the names are who they are.

Ask yourself if a career political operative will be able to lead the California Republican Party out of the Morass. This is a key question to ask. The second key question to ask is why did all of these players do what they did and why are they going all out now to install one of their employees as CAGOP Chair? A Third Key Question is how can we expect the same people that presided over electoral failure to deliver different results?

In the drafting committee of the CAGOP, the New Platform was introduced. It abandoned the Pro-Life and Pro-Prop-8 planks, had next to nothing about gun rights in it and was barely discernible related to taxation. Eviscerating the CAGOP Platform has been a life goal of Luis Buhler and with Megadonor Charles Munger’s money behind the operation, Buhler was poised to realize some of his goals, which include: expel conservatives, moderate the party and ultimately centralize control of the power structure.

To those of you that are stalwart activists that are being denied Convention delegate appointments in favor of paid staff: This is nothing new, they do this every time there is an officer election in an attempt to control the outcome. Facts don’t matter, service does not matter, it is about the next election…

The specific issue related to 2011 that involves Jessica Patterson is the Proxy Harvesting Operation she was paid to run. Click here to see the proxy list from that convention. You will notice that the proxies of several well-known Conservatives ended up in the hands of well-known liberals. I wrote an expose’ over some of it. (Note the list of familiar names) Note that CRP Secretary Candidate Dan Trimble was involved in the effort to shred the platform as well.

The 2011 Platform Committee meeting has been the subject of legend and is still talked about within activist circles.

After the Pruner Platform was adopted over the top of the disaster known as the “21st Century Platform”, it still had to get ratified by the convention. This is where the Proxy drill that Mr. Reade, Mrs. Patterson and others were paid to execute comes in. The proxy harvesting operation in 2011 was unique – many people did not know who ended up with their proxies. Below are some examples:

Phyllis Wing – a Tea Party Patriot and a Conservative Christian from Lincoln ((SNIP)) her proxy ended up in the hands of Suzanne Caro from the Alameda Central Committee – not someone from Placer nor someone who believes as Wing does.

Bill and Bonnie Williams? Both are members of the Placer CRA and have been for years. ((SNIP)) Bill Williams Proxy was given to Peter Ohtaki, Jr from San Mateo County and Bonnie’s was given to Michael Pelzel from Santa Clara County.(note: Bill Williams passed away in 2018)

Kelly and Casey Lawler gave their proxies to David Reade. (She told me as such) Their proxies ended up in the hands of Morgan Kelly, the CRP Vice-Chairman Bay Area who voted against the conservative platform. So, Glenn County was represented by San Francisco County, Sacramento County by Santa Clara and San Mateo, etc etc etc.

Whoops.

In 2011, then Chairman Tom Del Becarro pulled a procedural trick in order to forestall a vote on the Platform while the Convention was in session. A Major reason was your intrepid blogger, working with Chris Mays and others did not discover true nature of the Proxy Harvesting operation until about two weeks before the convention. A lot of the evidence I cited was not discerned until after the convention.

About the only thing Del Becarro did right as Chairman of the CAGOP was the switcharoo against the David Reade/Jessica Patterson/ Luis Buhler Proxy Harvesting Drill that was aimed at eviscerating the CAGOP Platform. The Platform vote was taken at the next convention with all eyes watching proxies.

It is alleged that $200,000 was spent by Luis Buhler (with Charles Munger writing the checks) with the aim of achieving one of his lifelong goals. (Shredding the CAGOP Platform) What I know for certain is money was spent, Luis was the ringleader and Jessica, David and others got some of that money.

In 2015 – CAGOP Chairman Jim Brulte intervened and told everyone he would not tolerate another run at the platform nor another attempt to gut it. The Pruner platform from 2011 was adopted with some minor revisions.

It is 2019. It is time to adopt the platform again. Who do you trust to do the right thing with the CAGOP Platform?

This is the issue – Mrs. Patterson can claim to be a conservative but when the chips were down she did a job as a paid operative to undermine the values she claims to hold. Can we trust her to uphold the current CAGOP Platform?

We all know where Travis Allen stands and have no doubt the values he will advocate for.

These people have failed miserably as the GOP has lost a net 13 seats in the State Legislature since founding Trailblazers on 2011.

P.S. Disclaimer once again – I am not alleging any illegal activity by anyone. The point is what people do versus what people say. It is also one of independence, will Mrs. Patterson be independent of those who have been paying her salary all these years? Why do we expect anything different going forward from a group of people getting paid gobs of money to fail?

Every 4 years there is an RNC Convention where there are #YUGE media events, speeches and the like. It gets national TV Coverage and a lot of people like to go to the event.

If you are an RNC Delegate from California, you are part of the largest delegation in the country. However, because people like Oligarchy of Controlled Failure have helped turn California in to a wasteland, the California Delegation ends up getting the last pick of hotels.

In 2016, the California Delegation was in a hotel an Hour away from the Convention. Delegtes were charged an extra $900 to participate that the RNC does not charge. Guest Passes were also $900. This allow control over who the delegates are.

This pot of money created has allegedly helped pay people like Jeff Randle six figures off of the event… read on

The RNC Delegation drill in 2020 is the subject of major-league speculation. It was triggered when Kathy Tavoularis joined the CAGOP Treasurer Race. There are some within the ranks of CAGOP leadership circles that despise her and others that think she is awesome.

Your intrepid blogger has heard a variety of claims related to Kathy’s service in the 2008 and 2012 Convention efforts. She was the CEO of both delegations.

Unlike 2016, which was run by Tim Clark, 2008 and 2012 appeared to go smoothly. 2016 was an unmitigated disaster as Mr. Clark did not do his job and a literal nazi was on the final delegate list. People like Harmeet Dhillon and Jim Brulte had to scramble at the last minute to fill delegate slots because Tim Clark procrastinated. You are not supposed to make news when you run a convention delegation drill. Clark stepped on a rake.

The best I have been able to gather is that Kathy Tavoularis wants to be involved in the 2020 effort now that Tim Clark was fired from his Washington DC Job and his benefactor Jim Brulte is less than a week from being a retired CAGOP Chairman. There was a false rumor that Brulte disdained Kathy and that was why she was not the CEO in 2016. Unfortunately for Tavoularis, there are some people holding grudges against her from the 2008 and 2012 efforts.

While I have no proof of misdeeds by Kathy T, it is clear she has determined opposition. Your Intrepid blogger has endorsed her opponent Greg Gandrud for a variety of reasons, as it is my opinion that Gandrud is far more qualified than she is.

Note that it is alleged by everyone I have talked to that Jeff Randle (there’s that name again) made a ton of money off of his role in each of these RNC Delegate actions. Again, it underscores how small the consultant / insider world is.

Related to Kathy Tavoularis’ entry in to the CAGOP Treasurer Race, was a rumor about SB GOP Chair Jan Leja entering the Vice Chair Race and a Frances Barazza from San Diego entering the Secretary Race. When Harmeet Dhillon and Shawn Steel endorsed Jessica Patterson, there was a clear understanding that Mrs. Patterson was not running a slate of candidates for all CAGOP offices.

It is also clear that someone in McCarthy’s Crew recruited Dean Haddock (a former Kern Chair) to run for Central Valley Vice Chair against Lisa Moreno.

Your intrepid blogger is recommending a vote for Vicki Nohrden in Central Coast and Lisa Moreno in Central Valley.

Others believed that McCarthy/Buhler/Patterson were attempting to run candidates for Vice Chair, Treasurer and Secretary. It certainly seemed to be confirmed with the withdrawal of Barazza and Jan Leja finally putting rumors surrounding her away within 24 hours of the public disavowing of a slate by Mrs. Patterson.

Your intrepid blogger is being paid to assist and/or for Ads by Travis Allen (Chairman), Corrin Rankin (Vice Chairman), Randy Berholtz (Secretary) and Greg Gandrud (Treasurer). They are not a slate, I just happen to be fortunate enough to be in position to help them / take an ad from them all for a few dollars to put in my 2019 IRA account.

This gets me back to the 2020 delegation drill. While I have fielded a ton of information from a ton of sources, it is 100% clear that one of the many nexus(es) for Kevin McCarthy, Jeff Randle and the rest of the Oligarchy of Controlled Failure is the RNC Delegation Drill coming up. That is big money.

There are of course consulting contracts to run junk mail for the CAGOP. There are of course consulting contracts to run campaigns of anointed candidates from California Trailblazers. I just can’t ignore the financial bonanza of the 2020 RNC Convention – especially given that Kevin McCarthy could very well be the Speaker of the House in 2021. Things that make you go hmmm…